The Phoenix Files
by FroggiJ
Summary: Rated T for now because I don't know how it will end up yet, and it will most certainly cover some more mature themes such as depression, and things you probably don't want your 5-year-old to read . Post-war Tobias fic, please review! Updated 5/10/08
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Tobias, any referred to species from the original book series, or any of the other Animorphs and plac

Disclaimer: I do not own Tobias, any referred to species from the original book series, or any of the other Animorphs and places (duh), but I did come up with the new species and technology all on my own, several years ago.

I also do not own the quote by Saul Williams, nor do I claim to.

Please don't anybody sue me for anything.

And the chapters for this won't always involve some sappy quote or anything, no worries.  
NOTE: This chapter may contain what can be considered "adult themes" – in other words, something with depth of REAL emotion, so if you're afraid of going down the proverbial rabbit hole, do NOT read on.

--

"The powers that be may be the powers that be, but the real powers are the powers of BEING, that each and every one of us has, and we all have the opportunity, every day, to stand up and make a difference." - Saul Williams, Live at the Voodoo Music Festival 2005, Introduction to his song List Of Demands.

--

He lay there on the rocks. Just lay there, in nothing but the rather tightly-fitting articles of clothing he had on for a morphing outfit, and those were soaked through. Yes, he was being a human, for now.

He planned to die a human. She'd like that...if he stayed human too long, ignored his hawk lifestyle. Maybe not the dying part, but...oh well. Tobias smirked at the thought, feeling the water coming up past his hair, up to his ears, as he lay there at the cove.

Waiting for high tide.

It'd been one of their frequented spots, the cove. He liked it, even with the hawk's slight fear of water that would push at his mind, while they flew there. And now he was simply ignoring it as he lay there, the water getting higher and higher. He'd set all his affairs - what few there were - in order. He'd buried Rachel's ashes where nobody would find her...

Rachel...his last connection to the human race, other than this piddly little morph he could only stay in for two hours a time if he didn't want to end up exactly where he'd started. Being bullied, unable to do anything, no real family. Sure, he'd found his mom, but...she didn't remember anything about him except that he had the same shade of blonde she had. And anyone could see that much, if the two were both human and in a room together.

Being a hawk was too lonely, it left him too much time to think. Too much time to mope. He didn't want to be that rather sad looking bird that everyone knew was once an Animorph, but now had lost all the humanity in him, except to occasionally morph human and cry. The one that everyone pitied, and gave THAT look to. The look that meant they knew he was bad off, even when he said he wasn't. He'd lost the most people in this war.

He hadn't lost the most overall -- that was Jake. Jake had lost his illusions, nobody could replace that, and that truly was horrible. Tobias had lost those long before he had become an Animorph, even if he was born to be one.

He didn't even take a breath before the highest wave yet washed over him, covering his mouth, his nostrils, but tauntingly left the very tip of his thin, lithe, nose poking out for the air to touch.

He thought about the first time Rachel kissed him. And the wave was gone, leaving him coughing once - only once.

He didn't even wonder what he was doing, at this point, he just knew. He knew he just had to wait there long enough.

The next wave, and he was remembering the time Rachel brought hamburgers out to the meadow, and made fun of him because he was scarfing it down like Ax at the Cinnabon, and had to hold his face still, away from the burger, to wipe ketchup and thousand island dressing off his chin, nose, and cheeks. And some off his neck, even. It was a messy burger. A "real" burger, according to Carls, Jr. ("If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face" -- A/N I don't own that either!)

A few tears washed away with the wave as it left him there again.

--

A flurry of voices inside his head - memories he didn't even consciously know he had, from his mother, when he was a baby. His uncle telling him to "Shut the hell up and get me another beer!... worthless ..." Meeting his real father for the first time, and that voice inside his head. Elfangor's memories that'd been given to him that time that Taylor tortured him to almost this same point of near-death. Taylor laughing, for that matter. Hork Bajir faces, ones he'd killed, friends he'd lost. Gnarling Taxxons.

And then the sea disappeared around him, and he was standing alone in a ... well, it wasn't really a room. There was nothing there. Nothing at all. No color, no light, no dark.

He only saw her for a second.

"TOBIAS!!" Rachel shouted at him.

--

The sun was bright, when he opened his eyes, staring straight up at high noon, so to speak.

He was cold, and wet, and his chest hurt. He couldn't focus his eyes for a while, and he could barely hear something that sounded like, "We got him!" And then a bunch of mumbling...and all turned to darkness. The darkness of unconsciousness, and not his goal.


	2. Chapter 2

"The powers that be may be the powers that be, but the real powers are the powers of BEING, that each and every one of us has,

"The powers that be may be the powers that be, but the real powers are the powers of BEING, that each and every one of us has, and we all have the opportunity, every day, to stand up and make a difference." - Saul Williams, Live at the Voodoo Music Festival 2005, Introduction to his song List Of Demands.

--

Meetings at the barn, acquiring the hawk, Rachel going grizzly, and pawing - at him.

He woke up again elsewhere, certainly not somewhere he'd expected. Woodgrain walls, a ceiling right above him covered in the same things. It was a cell, with a curtain for one wall, just the subtle glow of a television light peering in at him through cheap wool. Turned out he could also hear through it, once his eardrums stopped ringing loudly enough to wake the dead. The television - talking about Rachel's death.

Of all things, his first thought? _I'm in hell. I drowned myself and ended up in the 70's-woodgrain section of hell... Perfect. _

He rolled slowly onto his side, and reached to pull back the curtain -- but he missed. His wing was too short. Wing? He thought for sure he'd been out long enough and he knew he'd been human when he went under the water -- he should be stuck as a human, by now. Unless...unless his mind, while unconscious, freaked, and demorphed him. Must've been that. But then why did they put a hawk in a regular-sized bed, and not a trashcan or something? Odd...something just felt wrong, about this whole thing.

He didn't hear or see anybody in the actual room with him, and so took his time to try his hand ... erm ... talon? ... at sitting up. His head spun, and he ended up falling flat on his face, the tip of his beak ripping a hole in the horrible dollar-fifty bargain bedsheets.

_Nice one, man. Next time, fall out of the bed and break your beak on the floor, just go ahead and pour lemon juice over that open papercut,_ he chided himself. He couldn't even end his own life, that was enough of an insult. Now he was stumbling around being stupid instead of just laying there like a good chicken-boy? _Genius. Pure Genius._

He took a good fifteen minutes to get himself back up on his feet the next time, doing it slowly. And in the process learned that he'd been tagged -- for lack of a better word. A smooth, silvery band was now wrapped around his right ankle...no seam or anything. Too small to have slipped on over his talon, it fit snugly, but not to the point of hurting him.

Tobias used his beak, this time, carefully flaring his tail feathers to keep his balance as he leaned forward, and grabbed the cheap wool curtain -- it was navy blue - sliding it aside just enough to peer out.

Nobody. No signs of life at all.

Just a pile of ash on the floor from some sloppy smoker, who'd dropped his ashtray and left the tv on. Hopefully he was getting a broom to clean it up with.

_"Miss Berenson was only seventeen years old. Her friends and family will never forget her, and the things she did for them, they will never forget her shining personality, her accomplishments, her -- "_

He wanted to fly into that tv, right about then, and wreck it. Still, nobody came downstairs to clean up the mess, or check on him. Probably all up on deck getting drunk, telling tales about the animorph they found at sea to each other.

Finally, he got up the guts to try and flutter to the ground - which he did fairly well, landing just before he got to the ash around the table, scattering just a bit of it. Now he could see it smoldering -- not very safe. But it wasn't his boat to save.

He hawk-hobbled over towards the stairs to his right, leading up to the light of day. Better not scare the fishermen... He morphed, going human, at least until he got a better look around. The familiar changes started up, his feathers turning from brown and red to blonde respectively. Feathers melted into skin in that peculiar way they did, beak and talons softened, legs, arms, hands, nose, mouth, he grew and grew. His eyesight dimmed, hearing cut out the slight ringing he still had - probably a ruptured eardrum or two.

Fully human once more. _Note to self: if there's a next time, don't screw up. This morphing crap doesn't get any better the more you do it any longer._

Tobias looked around, that smoldering bit of ash not seeming to change in the least, and he headed out on deck. Again, nobody. How strange. Maybe he really WAS in hell.

He couldn't see any wya off the ship, they were adrift at sea, anchor in the water by the looks of it as he peered over the railing. Someone had to be hiding on here somewhere. There was another set of stairs leading to an 'upper deck' of sorts - it was a bit like a small yacht, with the captain's deck above the rest of the ship. Surely someone had to be within sight up there, if not on that deck.

When Tobias got up there, the first thing he noticed was that they were nowhere near land. At. All. He couldn't see even a mountain, or a sign of anything -- so he knew he couldn't fly off on his own, he could be thousands of miles out at sea for all he knew, and his wings would never make it. Instinct calculated that. Human part of him didn't care.

The second thing he noticed was another one of those piles of ash. A wristwatch laying in this one.

"What the...?" he started to ask, bending down to get a closer look. The watch was charred, but not destroyed, just as though flames of some kind had slightly licked at it -- at the inside of it. The outside was pristine, not a mark on the outer glass or anything. _Spontaneous combustion? Wasn't that a bit ... Twilight Zone?_

Suddenly, a noise behind him - like a crackling of wood over a fire, or perhaps splintering, just a faint sound, not quite the squeaky floorboard of someone walking up behind him.

He spun. The wristwatch hit the ground, the glass shattered into pieces at his bare feet as he backed up, jumping over the pile of ash up there, moving away from what he saw behind him.

--

The blue flame slowly took shape in front of his widened eyes and otherwise emotionless face. Not red, not yellow, a bright blue. Terrifyingly bright, at first, and then dimming. It took him a moment to see the head in it, the legs, an arm reaching out to him in it.

But rather than being someone burning up, it wasn't losing its shape -- it was TAKING its shape.

Now, being an Animorph, he knew what something taking shape looked like. And this still terrified him.

"What are you?" he squeaked out, when he saw a blue mouth starting to form.

The skin began to tan, and within seconds, there was a young boy - eight or nine - standing in front of him. Deep red hair, and eyes the shade of blue as the flame he'd come from had been. A perfectly normal, completely dressed, little boy, popping out of a fire? okay...he was in hell, and this was a demon, no-brainer, right?

The boy smiled at him. "I'm Nicholas. I'm a phoenix, just like you," he laughed, giggled really.


	3. Chapter 3

"You're

"You're...a mythical creature?" he found himself having this conversation in his head, at first, and only after waiting a minute remembered that now he had to talk with his MOUTH not his THOUGHTS if he actually expected someone to hear him and respond.

Again, the boy laughed, his blue eyes sparkling in the light of day. "No, silly," he shook his head, and hopped into the captain's chair -- spinning around in it a few times before facing the teenage-looking-boy. "Phoenix aren't mythical beings. You thought all other aliens were just stories too, before the war, didn't you?"

If Tobias remembered how to make facial expressions, he would have looked quite confused there. Here, it only came out through his eyes.

"I...You mean to say that the...mythical creature is, in actuality, a type of alien that came here way back when the uh...greeks and whoever else had such things in their myths were around? You've gotta be kidding me... I'm seeing things..."

"How is it that you've seen SO MUCH and you still don't believe me?"

"I dunno. Maybe it's the ...thinking I was really going to die, and now seeing this huge flame just materialize and turn human when that's what they say beings from hell do? Can you do it again, so I can see it better?"

"It doesn't really work that way," he shook his head. "But Tanner should be back soon, you can watch him rise, if you stop stepping on him," he was laughing there, and pointedly looked towards the pile of ash that'd had the watch in it.

"We only rise once a year, us full-phoenix. And often we hang out with people in our own rise group," he rubbed his eye. By all appearances, he was any normal, human boy.

It took Tobias a moment to realise their _rise_ was the proverbial rising from the ashes...not so proverbial after all. He moved aside, and slightly away from the kid in the captain's chair, who was having fun spinning again, and just in time - Tanner's ashes began to spark up again, getting ready to be rekindled, all on their own.

"What do you mean..._I'm_ a phoenix?" Tobias finally asked, catching onto that having been said.

"It's complicated. I wouldn't worry about it right now. Tanner can explain when he's risen, it's my turn at the wheel anyways."

(short, late, tired...at least I got SOMETHING out, which was a feat for me after today )


	4. Chapter 4

Tobias checked his time on the television, the news still on - only half an hour in morph, he'd be fine for a while

Tobias checked his time on the television, the news still on - only half an hour in morph, he'd be fine for a while. And...if these were aliens, they undoubtedly wouldn't mind if he just excused himself to the restroom to demorph just short of every two hours...aliens understanded that stuff a little bit better, didn't they?

Tanner sat across from him, a deeply redheaded teenage-looking young man. Freckles fanned across his face like flames, licking at the normal skin. Really, he looked like he could be the same age Tobias looked, in his human morph, so young. He even wore an obscure tv show t-shirt, something sci-fi, over jeans.

"So...you don't know about the Phoenix people, really?" Tanner mentioned, his angsty-teen brow curiously quirking at Tobias as they sat across from each other, back in the room Tobias had woken up in, at the table.

Tobias just shook his head.

"Coffee?" Tanner offered, getting up and going to the galley area of the small ship - so small that the difference between the sleeping quarters and the galley was five feet and another navy blue curtain you could pull back. Tanner made them each a cup of coffee, and set down a half-gallon of milk and some packets of sugar, in case either of them wanted any, sipping gingerly while he chose his words.

"Well...we're obviously not from around here. Some of us adjust better to human culture than others obviously. Lyon hates it here," Lyon being the little boy Tobias had talked with, so precociously, earlier. "He's only a rise younger than I am, you can't tell it by looking at him, but he always liked that form." Tanner tapped his mug, looking around. How do you explain your own species to someone who'd never heard of it, but had ties to it as much as you did?

"So what's your name? I'm Tanner, obviously."

"Tobias."

"Tobias...nice name. Don't hear it often," he cleared his throat, watching Tobias stare at something in the galley. He had an intense gaze, from years of a hawk, and he was focusing on the leaky faucet.

"You...you can choose how old you look?" Tobias questioned.

"Well, we're... not carbon based. I believe humans call it hydrogen, but that's ...what we're based off of instead. Thus the extreme combustibility of our species. And why we have to go through our cycles, it's slightly less stable than carbon-based life forms, who only rise and fall once, and that's it," Tanner offered up. "It gives us the ability to, within limits, choose our appearance. Up to a certain point, we can control our physical starting age, but as the year goes on, we get older and older. In a week or so, I'll look like I'm in my twenties, by human standards, when I am, in fact, thirty-seven. But if I start at thirty-seven, then...well, at the end of the year, I'll look like I'm a hundred and two. Not really attractive, I've done it before, trust me."

Tobias turned that gaze to him, listening intently, but not saying too much.

"Before I go on, we uh...we came here to find you. And get your help. I'd really like to know if you'll help us out, on our planet..." Tanner said, looking a bit sheepish, perhaps.

Tobias couldn't help but give a slight laugh. "I dunno. I just got done doing that here, so...why should I go with you?"

"Because we're begging," Tanner said, taking another sip of his coffee. "There's an evil force, on our planet. One of our old ones, who's ... corrupted. He's vicious, and vile, and wants to rule when our current system has been approved by practically everyone else on the planet. And, because of his age, he's stronger than us, we can't just say we'll start a fist fight with him and expect to win. We can't start any kind of a fight with him and win. He's a different breed - one of the last of his kind. And it's driven him to madness. He's taking it out on our newer generations, taking and brainwashing some, and then there are the ones he takes for his own. They go into his forest, and never come back. We need somebody much stronger than ourselves, who's used to war, knows how to organize troops, and much more. Who better than somebody like you, Tobias?"

"I can think of several people better than me. Anyone, even. Jake of the animorphs, any of our political leaders. Have you talked to the Andalites, maybe?"

"The andalites have their own war going on, you know that better than I do," Tanner shook his head, looking at Tobias with that pleading look he had. "We need YOU, Tobias." He sighed, waiting for any kind of an answer.

"What's so special about me, then? Why do you need ME so badly? Why shouldn't I think that you're just wasting my time?" Tobias answered, cooly.

"Because you're part of it. Whether you like it or not, or know it or not. You have the blood of the old ones in you. We can all feel it, Tobias, that's what makes you so different, well...at least part of what makes you so different. You're at the very least quarter old-one phoenix. I swear!" Tobias was giving him an unbelieving look, and he couldn't blame him...but he had a trick up his proverbial sleeve. "Listen to me...have you ever had what humans call a near-death experience, and seen something during it that you can't explain? A dead relative, perhaps? Somebody else's memories of people and places you've never seen with your own two eyes? This is the first mark of a phoenix."

It was a good thing Tobias wasn't used to using facial expressions, or Tanner would be able to see how out of sorts he felt now. How did Tanner know this stuff about him?

"I...I saw my dad. And some stuff from when he was just a kid," Tobias finally admitted, and nodded. He wasn't volunteering up anything else, at the moment, but the memories of Elfangor, the feel of his tail blade against his forhead, and a few flashes of when he'd met Loren...Tobias was sure that was what had kept him alive, his father and whatever supernatural ability that was that was in use.

Tanner nodded. "And you came back. And were able to do something you shouldn't have been able to do if you'd really been that close to death?" Tobias just nodded. "That's the phoenix in you. It means it was passed down by your father, in his blood, that was how he could communicate with you that way. You fell - died, in essence - and when you saw him you were smoldering. And then you rose, and you were yourself again. This is the same process we go through, Tobias. We turn to ash, physically, because our physical is connected with everything else in our beings. We learn things we shouldn't know, have generations upon generations of knowledge bestowed upon us every time we smolder, and start all over again, brand new, when we rise."


	5. Chapter 5

Tanner got up for a moment, getting himself some more coffee and letting Tobias mill that over a while

Tanner got up for a moment, getting himself some more coffee and letting Tobias mill that over a while.

Maybe he understood that hearing you were even more of a freak than you originally thought was quite a lot to take in, in one sitting. And they still had to convince him to go with them, and help out their cause.

Tobias hadn't even touched his first cup of coffee when Tanner sat down across from him again, working on his second. "I'm getting old. Waking up after rising is getting harder and harder. Maybe I'm just getting too used to being human, getting a caffeine addiction," he looked into the steaming mug, and shrugged lightly before looking back to Tobias.

"You said I was at least a quarter of the old ones?"

"Mmhmm," it was said into the coffee while he was sipping.

"So I'm the same kind as the guy you want me to help you guys deal with."

"Exactly. We need someone of the same caliber, with the same type of fire going through their veins, to even think of starting negotiations with him. Otherwise, seeing us as weaker beings, he'll just kill us all if we try to reason with him."

"But I'm not the same as him, I'm not even half, there's no way that'd make me equal to him."

Tanner shook his head. "It doesn't work like that. You share blood with his kind, to him, you're a worthy opponent. That's how his world worked, before his people all but died out. On their own, I might add...they just got too old to support themselves in a physical form."

"So why don't you just wait until he blows away in the wind?"

"He was the last of the full-breeds born, he's gonna live a while longer, and he has it in his head that he's allowed to be...a god, of sorts...not that my grandparents' generation did much to help that, they almost did treat him like that, once all the others died off, because of his power and prestige."

"Great, so you expect me to fend off the wrath of an insanely more powerful being with a god complex? I really did die and end up in hell, didn't I? This is...ridiculous..." Tobias started, and shook his head.

"If it helps any, there is something in it for you..."

"My own headstone? Engraved and all?"

"Didn't I just save you from that? Why would I just put you back there?" Tanner quirked an eyebrow, there.

"I dunno if that was the best idea," Tobias sighed. Feeling sorry for himself, which he hated doing, but ...he was doing it. He'd even failed at offing himself. He couldn't drown in five miles of water. Now THAT was pathetic. Stop that.

"Look, if it wasn't meant to happen, I wouldn't have pulled your drowned-rat-looking-self out of the water. I haven't even had the chance to tell you the fun part, for you."

"There IS a fun part?"

"If you couldn't help and weren't strong enough, the ring never would have accepted you. The rings are picky like that. That particular kind only takes to powerful old ones whose DNA and line go back far enough in our culture." ((a/n - pardon the lotr-ish-ness of this part XD it gets better, I swear!))

"Okay, that made even less sense than saying there was a fun part about being abducted by aliens to help with their civil uprisings."

Tanner just wiggled his eyebrows cryptically, and looked down at Tobias' hands, a smug smirk on his almost stereotypically Irish-looking features.

Tobias' forhead creased as he watched Tanner doing such a silly looking expression. He really HAD been on earth too long, if he were making faces like that. Even Tobias could hardly muster one eyebrow lifting up.

Finally, his gaze caught on to where Tanner was looking, and what he saw again was that silver band. It'd been around his talon, earlier, and now sat firmly on his right hand's ring finger, glistening in the little light that made it into the room, from the bad overhead lighting and one porthole window just to the side of the closed door. Tobias took in a deep breath, and opened his mouth to speak, hesitating.

"I almost hate to ask this, but...what in the hell does a silver ring have to do with anything?"

"You're right, you should hate to ask this if you don't want to know all about the history of our culture," Tanner smirked there, annoyingly chipper. "There are the old ones I've slightly mentioned, and then there are the ones that came before them. They were the first phoenix to start taking a solid form, as close to a permanent one as we can get.

"The Ancients started out as beings of nothing but fire. They could vaguely take the shape of simple things. Trees made of flame, burning bushes," at which point Tobias had to wonder how long there'd been phoenix types on earth. "Small flying animals. But they always had to return quickly to fire form, or risk turning to ash and being scattered across our planet in millions of pieces, dying permanently. But living your life as a ball of fire isn't all they'd started out thinking it was cracked up to be.

"Legend has it that a group of ancients returned to the spot of the first rising, our cradle of life, so to speak, looking for answers. Why, when they were capable of so many deep thoughts and grasp of abstract concepts - something no other beings on our planet had done before - were these fireballs given the ability to reach for something and never grasp it? Real being. There's only limited amounts of interaction and sight you have when you're on fire all the time."

Tobias sipped at the coffee finally, looking to Tanner to continue, but the boy stopped there.

"So are you game or what, Tobias the hawk? You coming with us to help and hear the rest of the story, and get a reward, or what?"

"I don't need a reward," he sighed, shaking his head there. What he did need, though, was something to take his mind off of Rachel. Maybe worrying about another species would help...and if not he could just ask the old phoenix he was supposed to be negotiating with - or fighting, he wasn't quite sure which they expected him to do yet - to help him out with getting his mind out of his body...in the gory way. "I DO need off this planet for a while, though..."


	6. Chapter 6

Excerpt from the Book of the Eternal Flame ((A/N - this is my creation

_**Excerpt from the Book of the Eternal Flame**__ ((A/N - this is my creation. Get over it. I didn't take this from anybody else whether you think I did or not...just had to make sure that was clear so nobody reads this and tries to sue me, I've never seen this sort of thing anywhere else...I swear on a stack of limestone Mayan houses!))_

And so it was that the ELDERS reached the SOURCE from whence they had come, but none of the answers to their questions. Nothing was there. Nothing but the SOURCE itself, which could not be asked questions, and the creatures the SOURCE had produced, the ELDERS that had returned.

They asked their questions to the emptiness within the volcano of their beginnings, in vain.

Hold a shape they could not, but one more practiced in the art of controlling his form and composure rose up in a mighty orange flame, going forth to the SOURCE spot. He challenged it, and in that challenge, lifted a silver stone from the volcanic rim around the SOURCE, and threw it into the SOURCE, as a child might into a pond, screaming and roaring with all the strength of a thousand burning trees.

Disheartened, the others turned their backs on him, prepared to leave and continue their existence in only consciousness without form.

But they had not gone more than a few branch-lengths when, out of the pit of the SOURCE, came an even mightier sound than any had heard before. It shook the ground, and the trees below at the base of the volcano fell out of their places in the earth, exposing their scorched roots to the air. Every ELDER there shook with terror, knowing in their hearts that it would be the last time they would think. For they had forsaken their bond with the SOURCE, and ventured back here when IT had told them never to return, but to go out into the world IT had created for them.

It was not so, according to the SOURCE. They had learned much, and in so learning, had gained a thirst for knowledge that could rival ITS own. IT took pity on them, realizing the extent to which they were so much like ITSELF.

Out of the SOURCE rose a great flame, unlike they had ever seen before. Bright and silver it rose up, like a tower, higher than the tallest trees in the southern reaches, taller than the Great Expanse was wide and daunting. And from that towering flame fell sparks and bits of ash, unlike their own.

The SOURCE, finally revealing all of ITS glory to the ELDERS, bestowed upon them a great gift, and also a great responsibility.

The ability to take upon themselves a physical form, and with that form came limitations and expectations from the SOURCE and ITS ways.

A rain of silver molten rock fell upon the ELDERS then, and for every rock that fell unto an ELDER, sinking into his core, they were granted a form. A shape, with which they could learn such sensations as touch. Taste. And still they maintained their FIRE and glory inside of these shapes.

Each of the FIRST - the five of those ELDERS that were the SOURCE's first children, recieved a different form, and their loyalists took on that of their masters.

One was given the shape of the wind - a bird-like creature, for which the species of this planet was to be named: The Phoenix. A bird of terrible beauty and strength. They alone were allowed the responsibility of flight, and if they used it to better serve those on this planet, no matter what shape, they were to be given the greatest reward. Immortality, and infinite knowledge.

The Second was given the shape of an in-between - a toad or frog-like being, messengers between all others. They were allowed to go where they pleased along the surface of this planet, be it in a tree to speak with the phoenix in his perch, the ground to commune with the MOTHER, or the water which all other life here depended on. Fire could not hurt it, for it was made of fire, and water did not quench it. For their services in aiding every other being on the planet, no matter the shape, they were allowed the give of changing shape, once their duties had been fulfilled to the liking of the SOURCE.

A Third was given the shape of the water - a fish with scales of a dragon, iridescent and beautiful. Theirs was the saddest tale, for they were not only there to live, eat off of and then fertilize and spread the most important of aquatic life, but they were the self-sacrificers. Their task was to give themselves to the hungry ones of all the other species, as food, to better their other kind. They were satisfied with what little knowledge they did have, and would never learn the freedom of flight, nor how the breeze felt on their skin at night, nor the welcome flame of the SOURCE again. Their lives were the most precious of all, and for that, they were given honor, above all others on the planet, and they were the SOURCE's favorites, for the SOURCE ITSELF could not step into the sea, nor nurture others with ITS own being, as they could.

The Fourth was given the shape of the earth, loving MOTHER above the others, and wanting to communicate with HER the most. Trees and bushes all of them, they were the toys of MOTHER, and she made them beautiful, flowering and growing leaves, and she populated her favorite parts of the planet with them, where they could have the best views of the goings on of the others. The Phoenix depended on them, the Semi-Aquatics used them and thanked them for their help in delivering their messages, and their roots became food for those in the waters of the planet. For these services they were given extended lives of beauty and peace, untouched by weather, barely noticed by time, and cherished by all, and MOTHER would nurture them with the LOST beings of the planet, providing nutrition to their roots within her body.

The Fifth - he who had thrown the gigantic silver rock into the SOURCE in the first place - was given a much different choice than the others. They were the knowledge-thirsty, the most inquisitive of all on the planet, and for that they would need the most amount of the SOURCE'S help. Rather than the others, the molten silver did not fall through to their core.

'Why, SOURCE, why do we not deserve your grace and abilities like the others have recieved?' they asked.

But again, there was no answer. The silver ash had fallen to their feet, and the one who had caused this cataclysmic chain of events bent down, reaching for it with sadness.

In his sadness, a single tear of fire hit the metal, causing a hole to melt through the center of it, creating a pure, unbroken ring of silver. The silver ring gleamed up at him, as if the SOURCE ITSELF was telling the ELDER not to be so sad. It attracted his attention, and in that curiosity and drive he shared with the SOURCE, he conjured up a digit with which to try and pick up the ring.

And, for the first time, he actually did.

--

"That ring gave him the shape of a human-like being, closest to what we look like today, and as soon as his flame was fully formed into that shape, the others caught on, and soon they had a whole tribe of us," Tanner explained.

It was well into the night, not that you could tell out in space with nothing but stars, the occasional ray of light reflecting off a planet, and such things.

"Of course, there were some stories of interbreeding between the elements, and in those crossings came the different generations of us. The Old Ones, the ones your blood comes from, were the pure ones...the original generation of ringed ones. They don't burn in what is, with all the other generations and species, the traditional way. With the ring, they don't have to, and you being mostly human, well...you wouldn't burn like I do, because of all the carbon."

Until now, Tanner had made Tobias be silent throughout the tale of their species, and the story about the type of ring he now wore, but he knew that the same curiosity that was within the Source of their kind was building up in him, about to bubble to the top like molten lava.

"Okay...I know you've been morphing and demorphing all day. This is the fun part. Demorph completely, go into what you call your true physical form... I swear, it's safe, and I know what you're thinking, but just do it," he seemed more excited about this than Tobias did.

"I don't - "

"Tobias...trust me. I've been saying that a lot lately, but...I've never been around an Old One, and I have to see this. I'm begging you."

Tobias sighed, there, exhausted from all the morphing he'd done already that day at Tanner's request, because Tanner found it difficult to speak to a winged creature with a straight face, and he'd said it would be better if Tobias was in human form when they were on the ship, with the others who didn't know about his particular situation, until the time when Tanner could tell them. It'd seemed like an odd excuse at the time, but...Tobias wasn't terribly attached to any physical form at all...as shown by his poor attempt at drowning himself.

Fully demorphed, Tobias sat on the floor in his familiar feathery body, and peered up at the awaiting Tanner.

"Okay...now take the ring in your beak, and turn it a quarter of the way around to the right...and don't say it until you've done it."

Okay...no, not okay. You're insane...I'm insane for going along with this, Tobias huffed a bit. He didn't like the idea of turning into a ball of fire, but...he hadn't been listening closely enough to the story now, had he?

The second he started turning the ring, he began feeling quite odd. A quarter turn, and his head snapped up, looking around the room as it shrunk around him...but it didn't. The room wasn't changing...he was. And, more importantly, he wasn't on fire!


	7. Chapter 7

"I told you not to say it until you see

"I told you not to say it until you see...well there you go," Tanner said, waving a hand over Tobias' rapidly rising form, there on the phoenix' space ship.

What the - his thought speech was cut off, and only then did he truly feel what was happening to him. The ring...it was causing him to morph. But it wasn't the same kind of morphing.

He heard his bones crunching, growing thicker, filling in, felt his feathers melt into skin, even saw himself rising up from the ground. He was becomming human. But not his usual human morph. Already, he could tell that much. The height was completely different. His hearing and vision were NOT changing in the least, even as he rose up to a good couple inches over six-feet-tall.

This was NOT him...who was he turning into?

Tanner just sat back and smiled, as Tobias emerged, human, in nothing but a morphing outfit.

"...hell just happened?" he finished his earlier thought, as soon as he seemed to stop feeling the changes. Feeling wasn't the right word...sensing. He couldn't feel a thing, throughout it all, all he knew was that the ring itself had morphed him into some...guy. Tobias quirked his eyebrow - and could feel it, feel himself making an expression, which he wasn't even sure how he did without concentrating on doing so.

Tanner laughed, seeming to be getting a kick out of this whole thing, as Tobias looked down to see his hands, muscular like his arms, and the ring held on one of those fingers. The silver gleamed up at him as if it, too, were laughing at him, in a way, amused.

And then, perhaps, it kicked in a bit. Tobias rushed over towards the ship's bathroom, and peered in it. He was...holy crap, he was himself. He was taken aback a bit, and actually took a step further away from the mirror, for a moment, in shock. It was him...but it wasn't. It was him at his real age, as if he'd never been stuck as a hawk this whole time.

He'd been through puberty, finally, a bit of blonde stubble starting at his jawline. He still had that unruly blonde hair, too. The features were a bit more defined, masculine, and whenever he emotionally felt something, his face put the corresponding emotion on itself, all he had to do was think of what expression he wanted, and there it was.

Now it was his turn to look amused. He was no longer a bully-magnet, he was...he looked like he'd spent the last few years working out, was what he looked like.

About then, Tanner stepped in. "A quarter of a turn gets you human looking, but it's not 100. Your insides will still sort of function like a hawk's, as in you'll get hungry as often as you did while you were a hawk," he was using the past tense, what an odd concept, to Tobias. "Your eyes." Tobias looked in the mirror as Tanner said that, and indeed, his eyes were not the same as they were in his human morph. They were a piercing golden color, rimmed with brown, more like the hawk's. "Probably your sight itself, and your hearing. Your immune system, your reproductive system. You're still the same being you've been the last few years, just in a different box. In this case, the box you would look like if you were human."

"Yeah, but this..." his voice was deeper...he no longer sounded like he was competing with Rachel for soprano of the year in choir, heh. "This isn't me. This isn't the...the...same type of cardboard..." he didn't know how else to say it. "I look like I grew up in a kickboxing class."

"Well, you were a muscular hawk, who had to fly for your life, your food, to get anywhere, do anything other than stand on your two talons, for how many years?" Tanner pointed out. "If you were a skinny, malnourished hawk, you'd look it as a human. You'd be nothing but flesh and bone. But uh...I somehow don't think many hawks wanted to challenge you for your territory, did they?"

Tobias let loose a string of words in a mishmoshed sentence that I can't post here without having to put another disclaimer for language on here. "Where were you two years ago, man? I need a shave...I need clothes, hell, I can't do this. I've got nothing..." he realized, watching his eyebrows react in the mirror.

"Trust me, we thought of everythign for you. We didn't know if you'd accept, but we wanted you to, and wanted to be ready for this in case you did. Good thing we thought ahead, huh? It gets pretty cold on our planet sometimes..." he was off, back into the other room.

Tobias just kept...staring at himself, unbelieving. It couldn't be...it couldn't have just been handed to him like that...no. This was a trick. Who in their right minds would this ACTUALLY happen to? Maybe he just inhaled too much saltwater and was hallucinating?

And then, suddenly, his expression dropped, and he paled slightly, just his brow creasing. His eyes grew sad, but stern, watching himself as he realized something -- Rachel had never seen him like this. Rachel would never...ever...see him again, never see him grown up. She died seeing the thirteen-year-old he started out as, and the cold cruel eyes of a hawk, and that was her boyfriend?

He felt a new sensation. One he hadn't had since Jake saved him from that last swirlie. It was a good thing he was in the restroom, where he could quickly move to the toilet -- he threw up. Prayed to the porcelain god, as it was. Tobias gave a last cough, and shut the lid, sinking to a seated position by the side of the toilet while he flushed, erasing evidence of his little nervous episode.

He was still a nervous wreck...but who could blame him? He went from Rachel's funeral to trying to kill himself at the cove they loved to visit together, to someone saving him and then asking for his help to save THEIR planet. While the last images of war were still so fresh in his mind. He tried not to picture Rachel's last moments, her looking up at him like that as he morphed human to see her, crying as soon as his tear ducts had began to form.

His last connection to the human world. And now he was handed his own body back, just like that, after his last reason for being human, after all he'd been through, had died right in front of his eyes.

With that thought, Tobias' stomach started to churn again, and groaned deep inside of him. He leaned his head against the closed toilet, trying to get a grip, when he heard Tanner come back in.

"Okay we've got...why are you sitting down there?" he looked at Tobias like he was crazy. "Are you okay? You're sheet-white..."

Tobias just nodded. "You've got what, now?" he asked, when he didn't hear Tanner continue.

"Jeans, a staple of humankind, I love them more than life itself," he smirked, and shrugged off the possible threat of his 'hero' being ill, or otherwise unable to help them out, if he was just getting sick on the ride there. "Bunch of t-shirts to choose from, a couple of sweaters - not the best selection, but there are better things on my planet when we get there, I promise. You...really won't need formal attire there, so I hope you don't prefer sweats or slacks."

Tobias shook his head, and pushed himself up, finally.

Tanner led him into what was basically the dressing room, and left Tobias to his own devices.


	8. Aftermath 1

Okay, here's a little, because I'm going bonkers reading and rereading it rather than actually

Okay, here's a little, because I'm going bonkers reading and rereading it rather than actually...adding to it.

So I'm posting it to get it out of the way...

--

Alright, getting on with it...erm...

I don't know if I should include another disclaimer or not, but uh. I'm not making any money off of this, I'm dead broke, please don't sue me for the use of any of these characters

--

--

(A/N: this is COMPLETELY after the last book, mind you…after everything with The One, and the _Rachel_. And yes I will get around to explaining how they survive shortly )

It only took Tobias two months after his return to earth, after the disaster on _the Rachel_, to figure out that he didn't want to do this anymore. Over the last few years, he'd been through so much, he'd never had the time to consider his options in life, and nobody but Cassie knew the truth of what he'd done after Rachel's death; about his involvement with the Phoenix people, and the experiences there that would change him forever...again.

Not to mention the reward he'd hidden away, somewhere in his territory in Yellowstone. Now that part he hadn't even told Cassie about. He'd never told her he'd lived as a human, as himself again for over a year, between the time he left earth and when he got back.

Jake and Marco just thought he'd flown around the forest all that time, alone, as a hawk.

They'd never know it was him, none of them. Even if he went face-to-face with them, in the form he would have if he hadn't been stuck as a hawk. They'd never believe it was possible, in so short a time since they'd last seen him. They'd never know it wasn't a morph even if they did find out, which he intended to make impossible.

They'd never HAVE to know...

--

He didn't have too terribly many options: Money was not a problem, thanks to the trust funds set up for each Animorph courtesy of 'Uncle Sam', but there would be a certain satisfaction to be had about reaching some long-desired goals, later on in life when he looked back at all he'd done. Things he wanted to be able to say.

Like... "I finished high school after the war."  
"I went to college and got this degree, isn't it nice in that oak frame?"  
"I got to see the world, and got to see the stars, and didn't have to fight to do it."  
"I got to visit my father's planet."

Things like that would be nice. Ax had said, when they'd rescued him from the One, that he was trying to propose such a thing to his superiors, but it wasn't going over so well yet. They really didn't want just any other lifeform walking over the grass they had to eat, among other serious concerns with letting an alien species onto their homeworld, and humans had been known to be...well...sloppy, at best sometimes.

After a full week of festering over the question, he finally decided to seek help, from the only being who undoubtedly already knew about all of it: Toby. The darling Hork-Bajir named after him, and seer -- the only type of conventionally 'smart' Hork-Bajir there was, so to speak.

What can I do that'll give me the chance to finish my education, keep me from getting bored and wimpy again, possibly help me convince the Andalites to allow some form of tourism, and not deplete the moneyI got from saving the world on cinnabons?

"Oh, that one's easy, Tobias, but I'm not sure it's really something you would be open to until you have thought about it a while," she looked over to the hawk on the branch next to where she'd just stripped some bark off a tree, to eat. "But...there's always the option of the military. I'm sure you could come to some kind of a deal with them about some things, I know you don't want to be recognized, and depended upon for help with the public traumas as the others go through on a daily basis. The army, I'm sure, would be glad to have you, maybe so glad as to help you out with school and your other goals?"

Okay...you're right, I hadn't even considered that.

"I'll miss you, Tobias. Don't forget that you'll always have a home with us if you ever need it," Toby told him, smirking in the Hork-Bajir's weird way. Toby knew.


	9. Aftermath 2

Nearly two years to the day of the last time Tobias had been seen in Yellowstone National Park, he stood nervously out on the field of the large Californian Army Training base he now called home. It was no Twenty-Nine-Palms or wherever, no secret meeting facility, but this particular meeting was still fairly hush-hush.

As he stood there in training fatigues, in the early hours before dawn, the cold morning air blew through his cropped blonde mess of hair, cold enough to put a chill up his spine. But it wasn't for nothing. Three other forms approached, in the warmest gear they could find for such a task.

The rest of the base was dead asleep, as the lights approached from far above their heads. There was little time, but here there were no distractions; not at here, not at this hour. The ship approached slowly, descending with the practiced grace of an expert pilot, landing just after the four men had convened. Perfect timing, thanks to the army's impeccable training style for keeping schedules.

"General, Major, Dr. Greaves," Tobias greeted them with only a nod. At this hour, with the only three people who knew who he once was, there was no need for formality out here. They all nodded in turn as the alien vessel hissed just feet away from them, and a line of light began to appear from the top of a doorway, flooding the youngest of the four humans with memories of one very fateful night.

And for just a moment, it looked just like a younger Elfangor was coming out of the ship, towards them all. Just a moment. Then, Tobias smirked, and stepped forward, greeting his shorm.

Tobias! Aximili-Esgarroth-Isthil greeted broadly, actually going up and hugging him, something he'd picked up from the humans. Aximili had picked up several things from the humans, and as he aged, no matter where he was in space or on what planet, he wouldn't forget them. Tobias hugged him back, briefly, before they all shuffled to attention, for the diplomat that Ax had brought along with him, for the deed.

May I present to you all our Electorate member in charge of Extra-Terrestrial Affairs, Jarron-Avind-Shammik, Ax introduced them, as the much older Andalite stepped out of the ship finally. His pose was regal and he had 'no-nonsense' written all over him…then again, that was one of those practiced Andalite grace things Tobias had seen many a time. Didn't mean anything.

Jarron stood across from the humans once they were all on his ship, meeting in the center of the sizely fighter. His proud stance and demeanor never faultered, a true andalite warrior with his tail held high, but not in a threatening manner, about stalk-eye-level to his own body. His hoof fur showed him to be older than Aximili, by several years, possibly more than a decade, but he wasn't quite Alloran's age yet. And he wasn't a man to waste time.

Prince Aximili has briefed me on your proposition, and I must say that it will take quite a lot of negotiating and convincing on your parts to succeed in such a task. It is in the Electorate's general opinion that opening up our planet could very well be another affront to our search for peace, some fear it may be equal to that of Seerow's mistake, he looked gravely at every one of the humans. But, with the confidence of one of our youngest, brightest princes, Aximili here has at least convinced the electorate to give humans ... a shot, as he put it. Let the negotiations begin.

"We believe that we have come up with a variation on what was originally told to Aximili that may be a bit more satisfactory to your Electorate, and people. A middle ground, so to speak, between a full trading system and absolutely nothing. Lieutenant Tobias Fangor, who Prince Aximili has undoubtedly told you about, will explain his ideas," the General nodded to the younger man standing beside him.

Tobias gave what was, to an Andalite, a polite bow, as one would give a superior officer.

Tobias of the Animorphs, it is indeed a pleasure to make your acquaintance at last, Jarron nodded politely back, but barely. The humans did a great thing for their planet, yes, but the Andalites had their pride and history.

"As it is an honor to meet you and present such a potentially beneficial agreement between our peoples," he certainly had the 'talking like an andalite' thing down, and he was using that to his advantage here, in order to be taken more seriously. And to practice, of course. If he got his way, he'd get to live on their planet for a while.

"As we learned through the fight against the yeerks here, it is beneficial for the two of us to learn to work together, and it is also quite a possible situation. However, neither species as a whole seems to be quite so ready for such a mixing of cultures and, well...physical shapes, as I'm sure we can both agree. I have thought for quite some time about an acceptable alternative to risking what little bond our planets have in order to achieve an alliance of his caliber, and I have come to a series of stages in order to, theorhetically, ease into such a pact.

"The first stage, an ambassadorial group: five to ten officers which I will train, with the help of one of your officers if possible, to meet YOUR military standards so that we do not offend. I understand the difficulties with that, since we cannot train to use tailblades when we have none, but the standards should not be too difficult for us to adapt to our current practices. Once they have sufficiently lived up to those standards AND those five to ten officers have the Electorate's approval, we will, in theory, send them to your planet as representatives of our kind for what we call here a 'trial run'. The initial test to see whether or not it is an acceptable future practice. In the mean time, we would gladly accept the same amount of your trained warriors: A fair exchange. Of course, the length of the exchange term is negotiable, but it would ideally be long enough to accomodate a slightly more in-depth learning period of each others' cultural practices. And, if all goes well, such will allow those members of the first exchange to become teachers for future groups, which I sincerely hope to see happen."

Tobias and Jarron exchanged looks for a while, both calculating, thinking everything over, before they even approached the next possible 'phase' of integration.


End file.
